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5 'Pressing Games' To Get Into The Play-Offs


cityfan

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There was a discussion on Talksport or 5 Live yesterday about how well Manchester United had done in the second half against Man City yesterday, what Mourhino had said at half time and that when Man City are 'pressed' it exposes the frailties in their defence.  They said that City were the first to expose it around Christmas in the Cup and that Liverpool have profited from it twice this season

 

City are 4 points behind Boro with five games to go.  There can be no tactical gamesmanship from here on in.  City should go back to that pressing game as if each of the last 5 games is against Man City.  That mindset and effort may well yet get them into the play-offs.  Without it City's season looks like fizzling out and that is what it will be. City need to rain down on each and every opposition from hereon in and if successful can re-group and reconsider for the play-offs.

Any mild performance and lack of pressing will surely result in a huge missed opportunity for this group of players, some of whom might never see it again and only come to realise and regret the same when they are many years older. Sometimes you can only see when you are older yourself!

Opportunity = Premiership

Failure to take this opportunity =  the unknown!!!!!!!

 

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1 minute ago, cityfan said:

There was a discussion on Talksport or 5 Live yesterday about how well Manchester United had done in the second half against Man City yesterday, what Mourhino had said at half time and that when Man City are 'pressed' it exposes the frailties in their defence.  They said that City were the first to expose it around Christmas in the Cup and that Liverpool have profited from it twice this season

 

City are 4 points behind Boro with five games to go.  There can be no tactical gamesmanship from here on in.  City should go back to that pressing game as if each of the last 5 games is against Man City.  That mindset and effort may well yet get them into the play-offs.  Without it City's season looks like fizzling out and that is what it will be. City need to rain down on each and every opposition from hereon in and if successful can re-group and reconsider for the play-offs.

Any mild performance and lack of pressing will surely result in a huge missed opportunity for this group of players, some of whom might never see it again and only come to realise and regret the same when they are many years older. Sometimes you can only see when you are older yourself!

Opportunity = Premiership

Failure to take this opportunity =  the unknown!!!!!!!

 

Of course the other option, if our players are fatigued and can’t handle a press, is to play deeper and play on the counter.

I know the side picked yesterday was what we wanted, but perhaps we need to just get balls into the box, instead of pretty stuff.  It’s results that count.  Would like to see Djuric together with O’Dowda and Eliasson on the flanks, putting balls into the box.  If Magnússon is fit, play him LCB, and have him launch long throws.  We need goalmouth action to get the crowd going.  To hell with my principles :P

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The last few weeks of LJ’s sound bites have have reminded me of the ten green bottles song, we’re now down to...

”five cup finals written on the wall, five cup finals written on the wall, and if one cup final should accidentally fall, there’ll be four cup finals written on the wall...”

Repeat until May or mathematical impossibility. 

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well said and with Boro up on Saturday no reason not to force the players to 'go for every win'. One difference between us and teams in the Prem is our support. 

Other threads will doubtless cover this in numerous forms at the end of the season when there is a review of 'What could have gone better?'

Today the panic-stricken Saints fans sang non-stop to support their 'rubbish' team at Arsenal. Yesterday Burnley filled their allocation and sang for 90 mins plus, all 'lads standing up', Bournemouth create a non-stop atmosphere and good old BCFC fans sit/stand emotionless as their team detects a air of inevitable mediocrity at Millwall. 

The great irony of OTIB is that it is fans who dont go who then criticise the players and in some cases even the coaching staff. Weird but probably the club need to be sure everything is in place (and that includes positive support) before venturing into the Premier League.

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17 minutes ago, Hampshire Red said:

well said and with Boro up on Saturday no reason not to force the players to 'go for every win'. One difference between us and teams in the Prem is our support. 

Other threads will doubtless cover this in numerous forms at the end of the season when there is a review of 'What could have gone better?'

Today the panic-stricken Saints fans sang non-stop to support their 'rubbish' team at Arsenal. Yesterday Burnley filled their allocation and sang for 90 mins plus, all 'lads standing up', Bournemouth create a non-stop atmosphere and good old BCFC fans sit/stand emotionless as their team detects a air of inevitable mediocrity at Millwall. 

The great irony of OTIB is that it is fans who dont go who then criticise the players and in some cases even the coaching staff. Weird but probably the club need to be sure everything is in place (and that includes positive support) before venturing into the Premier League.

I like your optimism and I tend to agree on support.

However, our record v Birmingham is pisspoor and I've supported since 1998, and I don't think we've beat them yet. Home or away.

2 points from 13 games??

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At this point we have nothing to lose, we need to just go all out attack, I miss magnussen and his long throws recently, it provides so much opportunity. If we go all out till the end of season and don't win anything I'd be very surprised. We look great when we press teams and give them no space or time on the ball and it's been lacking so much lately. I do believe we have a good enough team to make the playoffs, but only when they are all playing at their best, which of late, they haven't.

I'd love to see a great atmosphere at the gate but at the minute it feels like we are all sat there waiting for it go wrong. It feels like we need the fans to get going to get the team going and we need the team to get going to get the fans going. I can't see the fans making the first move so it's up to the players to play their hearts out for the remaining games of the season. 

Always believe!!! 

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7 minutes ago, richie87 said:

At this point we have nothing to lose, we need to just go all out attack, I miss magnussen and his long throws recently, it provides so much opportunity. If we go all out till the end of season and don't win anything I'd be very surprised. We look great when we press teams and give them no space or time on the ball and it's been lacking so much lately. I do believe we have a good enough team to make the playoffs, but only when they are all playing at their best, which of late, they haven't.

I'd love to see a great atmosphere at the gate but at the minute it feels like we are all sat there waiting for it go wrong. It feels like we need the fans to get going to get the team going and we need the team to get going to get the fans going. I can't see the fans making the first move so it's up to the players to play their hearts out for the remaining games of the season. 

Always believe!!! 

I’d like to see a good atmosphere when the whistle blows.  Let’s see if it has a positive effect on the team.  Personally I doubt that it will as there’s so much not right.  If it doesn’t make a difference, at least LJ and the players won’t be able to include the fans as a reason why it’s all gone so badly wrong

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7 minutes ago, General Zod said:

I’d like to see a good atmosphere when the whistle blows.  Let’s see if it has a positive effect on the team.  Personally I doubt that it will as there’s so much not right.  If it doesn’t make a difference, at least LJ and the players won’t be able to include the fans as a reason why it’s all gone so badly wrong

Why then, was the atmosphere poor v Norwich and separately Sunderland 2nd half when 3-0 then if it's purely result driven?

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Just now, Mr Popodopolous said:

Why was the atmosphere poor v Norwich and Sunderland then if it's purely result driven?

It’s not just results driven but it’s definitely performance driven.  Give the fans something to get excited about once in a while.  There’s so much wrong at the club at the moment that we could all bounce, sing, bang drums, tell BW and Kent how much we love them, unravel Mark Ashton is god banners and let of flares for 90 minutes and it would make zero difference to the performance on the pitch and to LJ ability to change things. 

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12 minutes ago, General Zod said:

It’s not just results driven but it’s definitely performance driven.  Give the fans something to get excited about once in a while.  There’s so much wrong at the club at the moment that we could all bounce, sing, bang drums, tell BW and Kent how much we love them, unravel Mark Ashton is god banners and let of flares for 90 minutes and it would make zero difference to the performance on the pitch and to LJ ability to change things. 

I take into account the problems on the pitch and LJ's inability to change things when they are going wrong. Would also add his lack of tactical nous, understand why it's less than buoyant by now.

However, the 2 examples I gave barely fitted this category.

Three up at halftime and some results going our way, while still in the playoff places as we were v Sunderland. 4th in table and three points off second going into Norwich at home having just taken Man City all the way at their place??

If we can't get an atmosphere going in those 2 scenarios...dunno what to say.

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6 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Three up at halftime and some results going our way, while still in the playoff places as we were v Sunderland. 4th in table and three points off second going into Norwich at home having just taken Man City all the way at their place??

If we can't get an atmosphere going in those 2 scenarios...dunno what to say.

Our fans are no difference to the majority of other fans up and down the league.  A collapse like Sunderland or a poor performance against Norwich and the atmosphere will always be poor/nervous  regardless of where we sit in the table

I genuinely believe that if the players give us something in a performance to back then our fans are no worse than most others.  At peast that’s what I see when I  travel away and are playing well but I must admit my memory goes a bit hazy and I struggle to recall the last good league away performance 

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7 minutes ago, General Zod said:

Our fans are no difference to the majority of other fans up and down the league.  A collapse like Sunderland or a poor performance against Norwich and the atmosphere will always be poor/nervous  regardless of where we sit in the table

I genuinely believe that if the players give us something in a performance to back then our fans are no worse than most others.  At peast that’s what I see when I  travel away and are playing well but I must admit my memory goes a bit hazy and I struggle to recall the last good league away performance 

We'll probably agree we won't agree on these, but my recollection was that it was poor or at least flat from the start v Norwich. Vs Sunderland it was flat even at 3-0.

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2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Of course the other option, if our players are fatigued and can’t handle a press, is to play deeper and play on the counter.

I know the side picked yesterday was what we wanted, but perhaps we need to just get balls into the box, instead of pretty stuff.  It’s results that count.  Would like to see Djuric together with O’Dowda and Eliasson on the flanks, putting balls into the box.  If Magnússon is fit, play him LCB, and have him launch long throws.  We need goalmouth action to get the crowd going.  To hell with my principles :P

Goal mouth action, almost forgot what that was. That is exactly right mind. It is un real that you can have over 60% possession away from home and zero shots on goal.  But we have been playing 'crab' football all this year, rarely  'opening' up  other sides as we did in 2017. QPR was a 'good game' from us , Sheff Wed good (but they were dire) Sunderland ?  Apart from that nothing.  I recall  the late great Brian Clough once say that his sides were banned from playing passes backwards !

Certainly need to get us going. :facepalm:

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